A unknown Gem and a very addictive game!
Let's see if I can remember the storyline correctly...
You play the role of Rolo, a baby elephant who's mother (and a bunch of other animal friends) have been caught by an "evil animal torturing circus". As it is expected you have to save them. So far, Electronic Art's Genesis title keeps faithful to the "eco-warrior" protagonist of popular Genesis Platformers.
The main characteristics of the game are the many abilities both Rolo and his animal buddies can perform, each one required to either pass a level or discover secrets. Once again we find a lot of scenario interaction, such as squirrels climbing walls to enter secret passages, jumping with rabbits beyond the necessary height to pass a level, etc.
Another thing that fascinates me in this game is the amount of secrets, the most "precious" one would be getting the little brown hedgehogs, who'd normally be enemies, to side with you and unlock even more bonus prizes or easily battle some bosses. Speaking of boss battles, did I mention how creative these are? From jumping on clowns to humiliating a weightlifter, Rolo has a lot of variety.
The graphics were really smooth for the time, rather cute but not excessively cute, so that adults and teens would still play and enjoy the game.
The soundtrack was rather nice as well, with tunes that fitted every level's theme.
My complaints about the game are the lack of a save/load option, which is particularly annoying due to the great amount of levels, some rather annoying puzzles that require you to restart the level in order to get the correct combination of "friends" (This doesn't happen often though), some minor glitches in collision detection and a few not-so-fitting sound effects.
Overall, Rolo to the Rescue is extremely fun, but with some downsides to it. Sure it doesn't come close to Genesis' Sonic the Hedgehog titles, but it gets the job done when it comes to being a entertaining, challenging and addicting platformer.